1 Samuel 28:18

_BECAUSE THOU OBEYEDST NOT THE VOICE OF THE LORD, NOR EXECUTEDST HIS FIERCE WRATH UPON AMALEK, THEREFORE HATH THE LORD DONE THIS THING UNTO THEE THIS DAY._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

7-19 When we go from the plain path of duty, every thing draws us further aside, and increases our perplexity and temptation. Saul desires the woman to bring one from the dead, with whom he wished to speak; this was expressly forbidden, Deuteronomy 18:11. All real or pretended witchcraft or conjuration, is a malicious or an ignorant attempt to gain knowledge or help from some creature, when it cannot be had from the Lord in the path of duty. While Samuel was living, we never read of Saul's going to advise with him in any difficulties; it had been well for him if he had. But now he is dead, "Bring me up Samuel." Many who despise and persecute God's saints and ministers when living, would be glad to have them again, when they are gone. The whole shows that it was no human fraud or trick. Though the woman could not cause Samuel's being sent, yet Saul's inquiry might be the occasion of it....

Verse 1 Samuel 28:18. _NOR EXECUTEDST HIS FIERCE WRATH UPON AMALEK_] See 1 Samuel 15:1 and the notes there....

DOWNFALL AND DEATH OF SAUL (CHS. 28-31.) THE PHILISTINES GATHER TOGETHER FOR WAR. DISTRESS OF SAUL, AND VISIT TO THE WITCH OF ENDOR (1 Samuel 28:1.). EXPOSITION ACHISH SUMMONS DAVID TO JOIN HIM IN THE WAR AGAINST ISRAEL (1 Samuel

BECAUSE THOU OBEYEDST NOT THE VOICE OF THE LORD,.... At Gilgal, as Abarbinel thinks; which is the first thing for which the kingdom was threatened to be taken from him, 1 Samuel 13:13; NOR EXECUTEDST HIS FIERCE WRATH UPON AMALEK: in sparing Agag, and the best of the cattle, 1 Samuel 15:9; THEREFORE HATH THE LORD DONE THIS THING UNTO THEE THIS DAY; forsaken him, rent his kingdom from him, and would deliver him into the hands of the Philistines, as follows: had he been the true Samuel, he would have told him of some other sins of his, provoking to the Lord; as his slaughter of the priests at Nob, his cruel persecution of David, and especially of his asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit at this time, of which not a word is said, and yet was the very transg

7. SAUL AND THE WITCH AT ENDOR CHAPTER 28 _ 1. David fully joined to Achish (1 Samuel 28:1)_ 2. Forsaken Saul (1 Samuel 28:3) 3. The command to seek a witch (1 Samuel 28:7) 4. Saul's visit to Endor (1 Samuel 28:8) 5. Samuel's solemn message (1 Samuel 28:15) 6. Saul's despair and departure (1 Samuel 28:21) Saul's final plunge towards his awful end is the main topic of this chapter. Israel had ad

1 SAMUEL 28:2 is continued by 1 Samuel 29:1; the _connexion is_ broken by the insertion of 1 SAMUEL 28:3. SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR. This section interrupts the connexion; moreover, it would come naturally immediately before the battle of Gilboa. Saul is at Gilboa (p. 29) in 284. Opinions are divided; some hold that this section is from another source (E) than the bulk of 1 Samuel 25-31, and some that it is from the same source (J), that originally it stood in that document immediately before ch. 31, and that it has got into the wrong place, because it was omitted from an edition of _Samuel,_ and reinserted in a later edition (see p. 273)....

OBEYEDST NOT. hearkenedst not to. WRATH. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for the judgment in consequence of it....

Samuel pronounces Saul's doom 15. _Why hast thou disquieted me_ Disturbed me from my rest in Sheôl. Samuel utters this complaint, because although he came as God's messenger, Saul's sin was the moving cause of so unnatural a mission....

_Samuel's Appearance._ 1 Samuel 28:15-25 15 And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do. 16 Then said Samuel, Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy? 17 And the Lord hath done to him, as he spake by me: for the Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbor, _even_ to David: 18 Because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this thing unto this day, 19 Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand